On 8 April, Nick Clegg said: "Liberal Democrats have costed, in full, our proposals for tax cuts. We can tell you, penny for penny, pound for pound, who pays for them. We will not have to raise VAT to deliver our promises. The Conservatives will. Let me repeat that: our plans do not require a rise in VAT. The Tory plans do. Their tax promises on marriage and jobs may sound appealing. But they come with a secret VAT bombshell" (Budget will hit poor harder than rich, 24 June).

Alan Slomson

Leeds

• What an unbelievably patronising opinion from Vince Cable – a rise in VAT is not necessarily retrogressive because key essentials for poorer people, like food, are exempt. If I'm poor, am I no longer allowed even to aspire to anything that isn't zero-rated?

Anne Cowper

Swansea

• January 2011's 2.5% increase in VAT, or £500 a year for average households, implies these households are already contributing £3,500 in VAT on a £20,000 total spend on 17.5% VAT-rated goods and services (George Osborne's £13bn tax gamble could threaten recovery, 23 June). Slimming that spend by £500 is hardly "pain", especially when food and mortgage payments are not VAT-rated – unless eating out is your only way of surviving. These are not the people most affected by VAT; it's no more than a bottle of wine a week or so to them.

Robin Hull

London

• Expecting us to carry on working into our seventies is all very well. But if those of us who are working continue to squat in our jobs indefinitely, that means there will be no openings for those who are hoping to enter the jobs market for the first time. Our children and grandchildren might have to wait until they are nearly 30 to get their first jobs. Is this really what we want?

Nick Jenkins

London

• The role of Lib Dems in the coalition has been seen as standing up for the poor. George Osborne has rewarded this by creating a lot more poor people for Lib Dems to stand up for.

Jonathan Hunt

London

• Here's another way to save money: scrap plans for proportional representation. After Clegg's performance on the Today programme, no one's ever going to vote Liberal again, are they?